The Man From Underground
by KnightsVanguard
Summary: His big, he's bad, and he comes from a cave. The man from 101 has a sunny disposition, a gun, and deadly aim.
1. Chapter 1

There he stood, the ultimate contrast to his surroundings. The bright "101" on the back of his jumpsuit obscured by a thick leather strap and a high powered rifle slung across his shoulder. His eyes scanned the rubble, his fingers twitching over the SMG strapped to his right leg. He moved forward, head snapping between the ruined buildings of DC, his ghoul companion not far behind.

"Super Mutants!"

Suddenly there was chaos. He gritted his teeth when he could not find the voice's origin amidst the debris.

"Charon, 3 right," he said calmly to the ghoul behind him. He ignored the bullets that zipped past him and brought the barrel of his sniper rifle to bare. Counting off each second in his head, he never rushed, never jerked the pull of the trigger.

1: He savored the kick of the rifle as the first monster went down, headless.

2: The second target was Charon's, the hole in the mutants chest courtesy of his shotgun.

3: Cross hair centered on the head of the third, he pulled the trigger to late, as his target fell to a laser blast.

3 seconds, three dead muties. He smirked and turned towards the source of laser. A blonde woman stood among the ruins of the building, her grimy power armor the same color as the concrete behind her. She walked towards him, laser rifle trained on his head.

"What the hell do you think your doing this deep in the ruins, Civie?"

"Looking for someone. The GNR building around here?"

She ignored him, switching targets when she caught sight of the rather large ghoul standing at his flank.

"Do I look like a Super Mutant, smoothskin?" Charon growled in response to the gun's glare.

"Does it matter?" replied the woman.

"Charon, down. Hey lady, answer my question," said the wanderer, standing between his servant and the rather hostile woman.

She lowered her gun, and her eyes narrowed.

"You don't wanna go to Galaxy News Radio. Super Mutants are crawling all over the only way there, and our forces are being overrun as we speak,"

"And who the hell would your forces be?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"The brotherhood of steel, that's who," she stated.

"Riiiight. Whatever," the man rolled his eyes in disbelief.

_What is up with all the cults out here?_

He moved forward at a brisk pace, ignoring the laser rifle that once again was pointed at him.

"Hey, civilian, wait!" the woman chased after him, annoyed by the man's indifference. Remaining completely oblivious to the woman's calls, he advanced in to the ruined building she had come from.

The hallway(or what had been a hallway at one time) was occupied by more armor clad wastelanders, all huddled around the far corner of the right wall.

"I said wai-" her voice caught in her throat as she felt something grasp her shoulder. On pure instinct, she twirled, digging her rifle in to the torso of the ghoul standing behind her.

"He ain't listenin', smoothskin," she gritted her teeth as the abomination spoke.

"Gimme one good reason why I shouldn't pull the trigger, you zombie bastard," she ground out.

"Cause then _I'd_ pull the trigger," the man holding a 10mm pistol to back of the woman's skull grinned as she lowered her weapon. His grin only widened as he heard the telltale sounds of guns being cocked behind him. His grip on the gun loosened, and he allowed it to dangle form his index finger.

"You're dead, wastelander," said a voice behind him. The man turned and slowly put his hands up.

"Alright, alright you win," he said, still grinning.

"Drop the gun," commanded one of the men. He complied, idly letting the pistol slip off his finger. It didn't leave his grasp long however:

His eyes narrowed at sudden hulk of yellowish green that appeared from around the corner, and in the blink of an eye, The man crouched, catching his weapon on the way down. In less than a second, the man acquired his target, and fired.

The man who had told him drop his weapon became bathed and blood, turning to see a super mutant with a hole between his eyes.

"What the hell!?" he yelped. He turned, only to see his companions tense, and about to attack.

"Hold your fire!" he screamed. His men stood straight up, backs stiff as planks, weapons lowered in confusion, at the command.

The crouching simply stood, smile still plastered on his face. The blonde behind him slack jawed in amazement.

"Who the _hell_... who are you?" she finally forced out.

He turned his head slowly so he could respond, careful to keep an eye on the baffled men in front of him.

"Gareth," he stated simply.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry It took so long for the very few of you who were waiting.**

**Please review**

* * *

"Why do you think they called it the 'Brother' hood of steel?" a young woman asked as she absentmindedly flicked the safety on her assault rifle on and off.

"What?" the older man could only stare in disbelief at the girl. He flinched as the glass window of the door beside him shattered.

The newer recruits were to stay inside the GNR building and hold the last line of defense, should the battle that raged outside end up spilling into the radio station. That moment seemed to be getting dangerously close, and this chick was asking pointless questions?

"You know what I mean. There are girls in the brotherhood, so why call it a brotherhood?" the girl continued, ignoring the bullets that burst through the concrete beside her head.

"Have you gone completely _insane_?!" the man said as he poked his laser rifle through the broken window of the front door of the building, squeezing off a few rounds, hoping to catch one of the mutant bastards. Now he new what the heavy weapons guys meant when they said "spray and pray".

The girl looked up at her companion and sighed. "It's possible," she stated simply, standing and mimicking the man.

"But you got to have a few screws loose to willingly join a bunch of crazy bastards in power armor calling themselves knights!" she yelled over the ringing of fully automatic gunfire.

* * *

The blond in power armor paced back and forth, the repetition of movement boring Gareth to his wits end. He had decided to avoid conflict with the armor clad gallants, and was now sitting with the dead corpse of a cadet to his right, and a very angry Charon standing with his arms crossed to his left.

"Oi, Blondy, what's the plan? You just gonna sit here and guard us all day? I thought your boys were in trouble," he said, nonchalantly examining his fingernails.

"My _name_ is Sarah Lyons, so I'd appreciate it if you used it instead of blondy. To answer your question, we are going to attack as soon a we figure out what to do with you," the woman had stopped to stand in front of the man, her hands on her hips, and her brow twitching with impatience.

"Well, why don't you let me have my guns, and we can go blow holes in some muties together. I'm headed in that direction anyway," he stated, a smile spreading across his face at the woman obvious annoyance. She stared at him for a bit, remembering the way he had dispatched their big yellow friend earlier. She shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose as a head ache loomed.

"Give em' back," she gestured to her men without opening her eyes. They didn't say a word, but they did exchange troubled looks as one of them approached Charon with his shotgun. He yanked it roughly out of the rather frightened mans hands. Gareth, on the other hand, showed no ill will, simply taking back the sniper rifle, SMG and 10mm pistol, his grin growing wider with each. He really didn't need them, as the fraternity freaks had missed at least six other weapons he had concealed within his armored jumpsuit.

"Alright, lets go kick some yellow ass!" He yelled as soon as he had secured his weapons, quickly chambering a round into his SMG and dashing past his armor clad counterparts, Charon not far behind.

They stood, dumbfounded by the man's gung-ho attitude, and the stupidity that it would require for someone to willingly run into a super mutant hornet's nest.

"Andale Caballeros!" Gareth shouted behind him in the best impression of a Spaniard he could muster. It got the job done, snapping the men (and woman) out of their stupor and pushing them into action. Ahead of them was a heavily damaged building, the roof completely collapsed, full of super mutants. Six ran out of doorway, yelling insults in there vulgar, neanderthal like speech, while a third stayed behind, firing it's hunting rifle from a second story window.

Gareth dashed to for the cover of a car (the remains of one anyway) spraying lead in the direction of two mutants that had decided to go toe to toe against their foe, catching the both in the deadly barrage of bullets. As the _pink_ and _clink_ of bullets bouncing of the metal frame of his vehicular cover filled his ears, he watched the brotherhood of steel combatants file out of the hallway, Lyons barking orders to her men and firing her weapon. Two of them ran towards him, trying to get to the same safety he currently enjoyed. However they quickly changed directions, opting to backpedal behind a half collapsed wall. Confused, Gareth soon learned the reason behind their retreat, as a loud hiss began filling his ears.

"Shit,"

Without thinking about the consequences, he vaulted over the flaming hood of car, hoping Charon had followed suit. The mutants in front of him paused for a second, surprised by the humans actions, giving Gareth a chance to bring his gun to bare. For a split second, as he ran forward, taking aim at his first target, and it at him, the sounds of the fighting around him seem to escape his ears, and time slowed to a crawl.

A calm before the storm.

The loud report of Charon's shotgun, and a fountain of gore blossoming into existence, replacing the head of one of the yellow brutes running, signaled the fumble to begin. Gareth pulled the trigger, sending a deadly burst into the skull of his first victim, proceeding to ram into the limp, still standing body, throwing it into an unsuspecting super mutant. He quickly switched targets, blasting another from point blank range. Leaping over the dead brute, he landed in front of a rather surprised mutant. It's lip curled as he lifted it's arm to strike, but Gareth was gone, and the monster was caught in a hail of bullets, originating from none other than a pair of it's comrades who had just recently joined the fray, and were attempting to get rid of the little human pest. Gareth had rolled out of the way just in time, and was now in the process of reloading his weapon and watching as Charon dispatched the two friendly firing muties.

His attention then snapped towards the second story window, remembering the would be sniper. He simply dropped his SMG and grabbed the butt of his rifle with his right hand, twirling it a fore, the strap still wrapped around his left shoulder. He ignored the discomfort as leather dug into his left shoulder, and took aim at the super mutant, who was currently to busy shooting at the wall behind which the brotherhood of steel soldiers were hiding, and to busy to notice the real threat.

But what did you expect? They're all muscle and no brains after all.

Two shots, one driving through the mutie's right eye, the other simply for good measure.

Gareth relaxed, letting the rifle drop back to it's natural position on his back. However, the fight still wasn't over, as the super mutant he had knocked the dead body into had finally gotten up. Gareth was unaware of this however, so the roar was a surprise, and so was the the yellow hunk of meat that he saw hurdling through the air at him as he turned around. For a moment it was an all out brawl, limbs flailing every which way. The result was Gareth lying in his back, the hulk on top of him, choking him. He struggled for breath, clawing at the monstrous hands that wrung his neck. As he realized it was getting him no where, he began to think of a way to escape the death that was quickly closing in, to no avail. His sight blurred, darkening as he began to lose conciseness. He looked around frantically, and to his relief he spotted the SMG he had discarded earlier. His arm shot out grasping the handle firmly, and he hastily dug the barrel of the weapon into his assailants side, opening fire. The mutie howled in pain, and it's grip loosened. Gareth, never one to miss an opportunity, brought his legs up to his chest, kicking the mutant squarely in the stomach. He than scrambled out from under it, the beast now doubled over in pain, and was nearly deafened by the gunshot the blew off its head.

He looked up at the sky, sighing.

"Why didn't you shoot earlier?" he asked, really to glad to be alive to be angry.

"Mighta hit you," rasped Charon, shrugging his shoulders. Gareth couldn't help wondering about that.


End file.
